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My boyfriend is coming from England for 1 month and I'm looking for the best option in making a car available to him while I'm at work full time. What is the best option in this situation? Is there a place to rent cars longterm for a reasonable price? Should I buy a car and resell it? Is there a good place to advertise my situation and find a local person willing to rent out a spare car to me? Any advice would be wonderful!

My boyfriend is coming from England for 1 month and I'm looking for the best option in making a car available to him while I'm at work full time. What is the best option in this situation? Is there a place to rent cars longterm for a reasonable price? Should I buy a car and resell it? Is there a good place to advertise my situation and find a local person willing to rent out a spare car to me? Any advice would be wonderful!

Thanks

~Stephanie

Whatever you do don't buy and re-sell a car for a one month period. I'm an expert in rental cars. Maybe not the guru but I have played just about every game, discount, and rental strategy in the book. Renting cars twice a week for years, helped me fine-tune my strategies.

Rental car prices can vary by huge figures overnight, and sometimes by the hour of pickup and drop off. Search for a one month rental and see what you can do. Switch the days and hours around a few times to see if the price changes appreciably. I usually use Orbitz or Hotwire to find out base rental rates for a certain period, then sometimes I just go with the rental car company directly because the rates are the same (or less). Rental cars are hard to figure out, but you can find cheap rates from Budget, when Avis is renting the same car for twice the price for the same period of time.

My guess is, the rate will be much cheaper if you rent a car multiple times over one month, maybe for a week or two at a time. It's usually a special rate to rent for a week, and you could probably extend that to two weeks. But the monthly rates vary greatly, and you may end up getting ripped off, when you could rent two or three cars for shorter periods, for a fraction of the cost.

Another thing which you already probably know: Rent the car using a credit card that extends rental car insurance. The daily insurance rate at most rental agencies is obnoxious. And I'm doubtful that any existing car policy would cover the rental car, unless you rent it for him, and already have a car yourself. Even then, you will have to pay extra for the additional driver--at least in some states. So consider these other hidden costs before renting.

In terms of price, what is your budget? If you budget $20-22/day for a rental car, you should be able to hit that target without much searching (including tax). If you are lucky, you might get less than that. If it was Las Vegas, I would recommend not spending more than $12/day. But any way you cut it, buying a car and selling it is probably much more risky financially than renting a brand new car.

Finally, rental cars are almost always negotiable. If you get a price that is close to your target price, see if the agency will rent it to you for less. Often they will, and also see if they will extend the special rate for the full month so you don't have to mess around.

This idea from 43north87west is very helpful for a starting point. I usually fly to destination and rent for 2 weeks. Next time, I'll see what I can save with 2 weekly rentals. Right now, we're doing something different. Flying to Denver, seeing some relatives and much of the West and flying back out of Portland 20 days later. I am now looking for car rental in Denver, drop off in Portland, OR 20 days later. Mid-size from Thrifty $2070, (about $900 rental, $1100 in drop off fees) about $3200 from Avis (ouch!). So far, if I rent in Denver, drop of in San Fran 10 days later, $816, rent same one next day, drop off in Portland 9 days later, $867 - so I save about $400 splitting up the rental. Confirms the point of this original post. A suggestions, cheapest car rentals in the West are out of Vegas - if I didn't already have very cheap one-way tickets both ways, I'd round trip to Vegas, and rent/drop off there. I decided there was more things to do in S. Utah and Cntrl & N Cal, and wanted to spend the extra 2 or 3 days there than making a full loop from Denver to Frisco up to Portland and back to Denver.

Where do all these people come from who register just to dig up a 3-4 year old thread? And what is their motivation?

When I first started posting on C-D I didn't realize that those threads listed on the bottom were old and I responded to several interesting threads before someone pointed out the old dates to me. Perhaps that is what happens to other new posters.

1. Hertz had a great promotion recently, no extra charge for a one way rental. I recently paid $168/total for a 13 day one way rental. Could not believe the savings.
2. Join the loyalty clubs, you can get extra promotions.

Where do all these people come from who register just to dig up a 3-4 year old thread? And what is their motivation?

Rob702, not a friendly thing to say. Tell me why a old post on car rental tips isn't relevant to a newcomer? When this thread comes up on a Google search, and the site appears relevant and interesting why shouldn't I as a new comer respond, didn't you "start" at some point?. Originally, I didn't look at the date, but the original advice is still relevant, especially to someone seeking ideas and advice, so I thanked them and added how I rented a car and saved about $400. Isn't sharing information what this site is about? That is my motivation, to help any interested person out. According to your status, you've posted many times and been read by many, I hope they were useful advice, unlike this posting. What is your motivation for your statement?

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